The present invention relates to an apparatus for processing flexible, sheet-like products, such as printed products.
An apparatus of the described type is disclosed in EP-A-0 300 170 and in the corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 4,895,360. This apparatus has a feed conveyor which is intended for feeding printed products to an intermediate conveyor in an imbricated formation in which each printed product rests, in the manner of roof tiles, on the following product. The intermediate conveyor has grippers which are arranged on a buffer chain and are moved along a continuous, banana-shaped circulatory path in the direction of circulation. Arranged downstream of the intermediate conveyor is a removal conveyor, of which the clamps are intended for receiving the printed products from the grippers, and conveying the products away, in a hanging position. Between the feed conveyor and the removal conveyor, the buffer chain is controlled such that, in an approximately horizontally running section of the circulatory path, the distance between the grippers increases, with the result that the printed product retained by the respectively preceding gripper is separated from the printed product retained by the following gripper and falls into an obliquely rearwardly directed hanging position. In a following section of the circulatory path, the distance between successive grippers is reduced again, with the result that, while the sequence of the printed products remains the same, the previously oppositely facing sides of the printed products are then directed toward one another. In order for it to be possible for the printed products to be separated from one another in the direction of circulation, the intermediate conveyor of the known apparatus requires a considerable overall length, which affects the amount of space required by the apparatus.
An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus of the described type which requires a considerably smaller amount of space.